SAMSUNG Electronics Galaxy Tab S5e 10.5 Unlocked LTE, Gold

First off---I am NOT affiliated with Samsung whatsoever . I am a previous owner of the original Samsung Tab S 10.5 wifi model. I simply wanted this new highly upgraded Tab S 5e with all the new superior features and especially more RAM in this particular model---it doubled my previous Ram from 3 to 6 GB! This new baby BLAZES--- PERFORMS LIKE IT'S HAIR IS ON FIRE. I gave my original Tab S to someone who does not have much money-- a solid Samsung and still working wonderfully tablet. You'd have thought I had given him a new car, the way he reacted. I bought my brand new Samsung Galaxy Tab S 5e directly from Amazon...also I have included a little comparison vs the Apple iPad ( all iPad models not compared one by one here because of space.... yet you will pick up on my intent here ) ------The inutile iPad that can't even expand internal storage up to 1 TB forcing you to buy higher storage at obscene prices? The dumb iPad with Wifi only that doesn't even have a screen that comes remotely close to the gorgeous Super Amoled display in this 'half the price' Samsung tablet with LTE? ( compared to an iPad )... (An iPad with LTE costs insanely even more!) The jurassic iPad that doesn't even allow seamless file transfers and file sharing to and from Windows PC's and many other accessories, thumb drives, external store and peripheral devices? Many Apple buyers I speak with are proud of their overkill, (largely superfluous for 99% of tablet users) they brag about their ultrafast bionic processor equipped iPad, however, it doesn't even offer a superb multimedia experience with AKG tuned, Dolby Atmos sound quality from four, yes, that's f-o-u-r high quality speakers like the Tab S 5e has. The iPad you say that doesn't even allow the simplest of customizations and flexibility like the Samsung tab's DEX mode or an equivalent desktop mode with multiple windows open for true multitasking and productivity? An iPad that can't even wirelessly mirror its screen to smart TV's without resorting to a wired dongle or an overpriced Apple TV accessory? Please do more research next time. A super powerful processor that is locked up in a jurassic, restrictive and suffocating system called a 'walled garden' which actually is more like a walled prison is just that: Another Apple product meant for just bragging rights--primarily. With the younger people ( 18 to 35ish )....it's their peer groups that usually render the "Apple Sway" to buy Apple products...I have seen this many times Only 1% of iPad users actually do some productivity work on it, but still 99% of the time its for media consumption, which gives you a TRULY AND HONESTLY INFERIOR experience compared to this less expensive Samsung tablet that costs less than half the iPad Pro. ( The previous sentence most likely says it all when comparing Apple iPads vs this Samsung Tablet model....oh the pen??....surveys say those devises that come with the pen are once again are very rarely used be it Apple or Samsung..its a knee jerk "gimmick addition" to get you to buy it---to spend more $$$. Do NOT get it. The extra gadgetry newness of it wears off quickly.Once again in summation--- THIS TABLET is the best tablet right now.---in comparing everything.. Much better than the cheapest iPad Pro for half the price or even less than half. Loud, excellent quad speakers with Dolby Atmos, beautiful Amoled display, long battery life, accepts 1 TB micro sd cards, Widevine L1 certified so offline movie downloads get played at full HD. DEX mode is excellent too! Tablet allows both wired and wireless connections to smart TV. Just use DEX mode if you use wired connection for sending video out from Netflix offline download to TV so video doesn't get resized (common problem when device is at an aspect ratio other than the TV standard of 16:9). A word of warning for Google Play Movie users: For wireless mirroring of Google Play Movies, don't update the tablet's built in Google Play Movies app. The newest Google play movie app version disables wireless screen sharing and also disables wired screen sharing so that you will be forced to buy a Chromecast. If you have accidentally updated Google Play Movies app, just uninstall it and it should revert back to the older factory version. Disable auto update to avoid Playstore from updating automatically your Google Play Movies app and other apps. (You can manually update the other apps).

So my old Samsung Tab S2 finally broke -- it was still working fine but it fell. I then thought: "It's 2020, I should try out a cheap low-to-mid-range brand, surely they've come a long way." Well, not really. I spend $200 on a Vankhyo tablet with case and pen (P31); when I first got it, the heft of the tablet, the pre-applied screen protectors (front and back, back is glass too), the fact that it came with Android 10 pre-installed, etc., gave me a somewhat good impression. But the quality of the IPS screen and UI and many other things on the cheaper tablet left much to be desired. There is one thing that econo-tablets lack: finesse. Well, that and just good hardware. This Samsung S5e tablet has all that and it makes a huge difference.The screen of the S5e is just leagues above cheap tablets. It is, of course, an AMOLED display which allows for very deep blacks. I'm talking about black as night blacks. Most of my reading I do at night, and the fact that (when you invert the text) the black can get pretty much as deep black as the bezels is just incredible. The resolution is 2560 x 1600 with pretty high pixel density and that makes for fine/crips lines and detail. My Tab S2 had all this too (and at only 8 inches!) and it's a must if you're reading with the lights off because you don't want a light-haze to blast your eyes right before you're going to sleep. The Vankhyo tablet, even though it had a pretty good resolution at 1200x1920 (IPS screen), could not achieve deep blacks. In fact, everything including videos just looked washed out. So if you're using your tablet to read at night or you appreciate good contrast in videos I would really recommend you get a tablet with an AMOLED (or: OLED) display that can achieve deep blacks. Cheaper tablets from Samsung that have IPS/TFT screens, although quite good, also can't achieve deep blacks like AMOLED can, although they're probably better than cheaper non-brand tablets. For example the new Samsung A7 does not have an AMOLED screen and it achieves a minimum brightness (or maximum darkness) of: 3.66 cd/m², whereas the S5e gets: 1.74 cd/m² -- so from that you can see how much darker the screen of the S5e can get at half the A7's value.A 10.5 screen is quite big for a tablet, especially when mainly used for reading books. In a way I prefer the 8 inch Tab S2 that I had because it's such a good size to hold in your hand and move around and has a better aspect ration for my use. Samsung has stopped making high end 8 inch tablets, but I'm hoping they'll return to that because there is utility to these. The Tab S2 has 4:3 ratio which is better suited to reading/editing documents and books. Widescreen tablets are really geared toward media consumption (i.e., movies, series, videos) but there is so much else you can do with a tablet that I think it shouldn't be given that much emphasis -- or at least they should offer 4:3 options as well. The S5e has a 16:10 ratio and if you read books in contiguous mode it is quite enjoyable. Since it's quite a large screen, you can keep the tablet at a greater distance which, depending on your position, can be useful.Everything from the material finish to the UI to the smoothness of operation to the overall feel just exudes quality and finesse. Yes, it cost $349 at my time of buying but the extra $ over the econo-tablets is more than worth it. I am sure that, for most people, the new Samsung A7 will be just fine as well and it currently sells at $249 and is going to be better than any cheap- or non-brand tablet. No. 1 for tablets are Samsung and Apple, of course; if you're already tied into the Apple eco-system it makes sense to go with Apple, but otherwise Samsung is king. If you have a PC and just want to drop some music or PDFs onto the tablet, it is way easier with an Android device. Apple's closed system makes it so you have to install iTunes on PC, etc.; just a hassle really, so I'd recommend going with Samsung for ease of use unless you have all Apple devices already.I think it's a sport for Samsung and Apple to make devices as thin and feature-rich as possible, but personally I wouldn't mind having the device a little thicker if it somehow increases longevity. I would also rather have a 3.5mm headphone jack rather than only the USB-C port and the headphone converter dongle. I did test the USB-to-3.5mm dongle with some Sennheiser corded headphones and the sound was good. The sound over the tablet speakers is surprisingly good. The A7 does have a 3.5 jack still so if that is important to you maybe get the A7 instead. All high-end tablets by Samsung have left behind the 3.5mm jack in favor of just a USB port. I don't like having wireless devices *on my head* for any great length of time so I'll always want wired headphones.The S5e is kind of the sweet spot right now. Its price is much lower than the newer high-spec tablets but you get a premium tablet with great picture and sound, and it is still getting Android updates from Samsung. When I received the tablet, Android 9 was installed on it. After configuring I checked for updates and it downloaded Android 10 (~2gb in size). After this installed and I rebooted, I checked for updates again and a 700mb November update was then installed. I read that this tablet is also slated to receive Android 11 (and UI 3.0 that comes with it) so it is still future proof for a while.If I had to find some negatives, I'd probably say that the touch swipes and such don't always quite register as I intend, but I don't think it's due to any hardware issue with the screen so it could just be an Android 10 thing. When I swipe up to get past the lock screen, it will require a more thorough (greater distance) swipe upwards to actually unlock it, while I would think that the movement in itself should indicate what I want to achieve and that it shouldn't require me to travel as great a distance. One the Tab S2 I would just do a half-hearted swipe up with my thumb while holding the tablet with the same hand and that would unlock it, but not so much with this tablet. I like the power button being inverted, whilst the volume button lever is extraverted (so you can easily tell the difference between the two) but, at least with a case around it, I often find myself having to feel around and then use my nail to "get in there" to press the power button.In summary: this is a great, high quality tablet and is the current sweet spot for people wanting a Samsung tablet with high-res AMOLED display. It is worth the extra money over cheap exotic brand "high spec" tablets. If an unknown brand tablet has similar specs like 4gb of RAM, 64gb of storage, etc., it doesn't mean it will perform the same -- it won't. Samsung tablets are at another level. This performs better in most things than a Samsung S6 Lite (it being in the price range of the S5e). The processor and graphics on the S5e are better, however the S6 Lite has an S-Pen included. The S5e does not support the S-Pen and doesn't offer palm-rejection, so if you need S-Pen functionality in this price range you're better off with the S6 Lite.